Russian Immigrants Research Articles

Hierarchical Social Distance: Social Attitudes Toward Ethnic and Immigrant Groups in a Midwestern City

Using the Bogardus social distance scale, the study examined residents' social attitudes toward 10 ethnic and immigrant groups. The analysis focused on Burmese immigrants, a rapidly growing ethnic group in the community. Findings suggest that residents consider whites the closest in social distance, followed by African Americans and Latino immigrants. Burmese immigrants are positioned only slightly closer than Russian immigrants and Muslims. Respondents who are male, Roman Catholic, hold a college degree or higher, and have a higher income demonstrate a greater level of social acceptance of Burmese immigrants. Those who had direct interaction with Burmese, support public resources for diversity and cultural events, maintain optimistic perspectives about the economy and community safety, and believe that immigrants strengthen American society also prefer a closer social distance with Burmese immigrants compared to their counterparts. When comparing these findings with previous research, the rank order of whites–African Americans–Latinos–Asians–Muslims on the social distance scale remains consistent across studies. We argue that social distance scores reveal hierarchical group positions in the larger society.

Lexico‐Semantic Attrition of Native Language: Evidence From Russian–Hebrew Bilinguals

AbstractNative language (L1) attrition is ubiquitous in modern globalized society, but its cognitive/psycholinguistic mechanisms are poorly understood. We investigated lexico‐semantic L1 attrition in L1 Russian immigrants in Israel, who predominantly use their second language (L2), Hebrew, in daily life. We included Russian monolinguals as a control group. We tested two potential causal mechanisms of attrition: L2 interference versus L1 disuse. Participants completed a fill‐the‐gap task in two conditions: accuracy (producing one exactly matching word) and scope (providing as many synonyms as possible). We expected L2 interference and L1 disuse to lead to the differential reduction of accuracy and scope features, respectively. Lower scores for attriters emerged in the accuracy but not in the scope condition. Moreover, attitude towards L1 influenced attriters’ accuracy—but not scope—performance, with higher L1 preference predicting higher accuracy. We provide evidence for lexico‐semantic attrition in adult immigrants, pointing to L2 interference as the primary cause of impaired lexical retrieval.

“Foreign Work”: The New York Public Library’s Service to Slavic and East European Immigrants, 1901–1940

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the New York Public Library’s (NYPL) work with Czech and Slovak (Bohemian), Rusyn (Ruthenian), Hungarian, Polish and Russian immigrants 1901-1940. The work was commonly referred to among library staff as “foreign work.” Much of NYPL’s “foreign work” with members of these ethnic groups originated on the congested Lower East Side (five Carnegie branches), the Upper East Side (four Carnegie branches), and then followed population shifts to other areas of Manhattan and into the Bronx and Staten Island. By focusing on the needs and desires of these immigrants, the NYPL’s librarians helped them adapt to life in the United States of America.

Migration and Youth: The Lived Experiences of Russian Youth in Finland

The number of Russian immigrants to Finland has already been steadily increasing since 1990, when the President of Finland launched an initiative aimed at facilitating the repatriation of Ingrian Finns living in the territories incorporated into the USSR. Today Russian-speaking immigrants account for approximately 1.3% of Finland’s population. The segmented assimilation theory encourages one to explore the lived experiences of second-generation immigrants. This article analyses the data from qualitative interviews conducted within the framework of the field work carried out in the central part of Finland, from 1 October to 31 December 2021. Young people who spoke Russian in their family and were a part of groups where Russian is a tool of communication and used for the intergenerational transmission of cultural traditions were selected for interviews. The empirical data resulting from a study conducted in Finland provide insight into the factors that have contributed to the migration of their families, from the perspective of these young people. Applying the concept of identity as a “moveable feast”, this article focuses on the process of self-identification as depending, first, on the dynamics between inherited and obtained identity and, second, on the identity level (ethnicity, nationality, global identity) at which these dynamics are present.

The Evolution of the Russian Diaspora in Northeast China (Late 19th – Mid‑20th Centuries)

Based on the fundamental statement that the Russian immigrant community in Northeast China in the late nineteenth – mid-twentieth centuries was a diaspora, this article examines the process of transformation of the nature of the Russian diaspora and the peculiarities of its functioning at certain stages of its existence. The research is based on the conceptual ideas of Imperial and Diaspora Studies. There are four stages of the existence of the Russian diaspora in Manchuria, which differ in the nature of the interaction of Russian immigrants with a foreign cultural environment, due to the sociolegal, economic, and political situation of the diaspora, as well as sociopolitical and sociocultural conditions of the living environment. The Russian immigrant community was formed as an imperial diaspora during the period of Russian domination in Manchuria. Despite the decline of the political and legal status and the marginalization in the early 1920s and later the split into politically antagonistic Soviet and Emigrant colonies, the diaspora retained elements of imperial consciousness and the desire for national and cultural autonomy. In the case of the Soviet colony, this was accompanied by attempts at a new “imperial” expansion in the form of Sovietization of the former alienated zone of the CER. In its turn, focused on the Sinification of the former alienated zone, the policy of the Chinese authorities led to a conflict of interests and hindered the process of integration of Russian immigrants, which was already complicated by the cultural and religious alienation of the living environment. The capture of Manchuria by the Japanese and the creation of the state of Manchukuo, which led to the disappearance of the Soviet colony, actualised the problem of the Russian diaspora’s integration into the multinational community of Manchukuo. Implemented within the framework of the Japanese pan-Asian national policy, the integration led to the strengthening of national defence tendencies and a significant numerical decline of the Russian diaspora. After 1945, the Russian diaspora, which was subjected to political repression, experienced intensive Sovietization and turned into an instrument of Soviet policy in Northeast China. The history of the diaspora ended with mass repatriation and remigration of 1954–1961.

Home Editorial Board Reviewers Online first CEEMR Issues View All Issues Current Issue Previous Issue Index by Author Author's Guidelines Open Access Statement Publication Ethics Privacy Policy Accessibility Statement Contact Subscribe Enter your email below E-mail * ‘For a Secure and Stable Life’: Constructing Life Satisfaction in the ‘Migratory Careers’ of Russian Immigrant Physicians in Finland

Home Editorial Board Reviewers Online first CEEMR Issues View All Issues Current Issue Previous Issue Index by Author Author's Guidelines Open Access Statement Publication Ethics Privacy Policy Accessibility Statement Contact Subscribe Enter your email below E-mail * ‘For a Secure and Stable Life’: Constructing Life Satisfaction in the ‘Migratory Careers’ of Russian Immigrant Physicians in Finland

Русская Православная Церковь в мультикультурном государстве: пример Австралийского Союза

The article gives a brief description of the spiritual situation in the Australian Union. The first OrthodoX liturgies were served by the ship's priests for the sailors who made round-the-world voyages. Stationary churches arose in the first third of the 20th century, when a significant number of refugees from Russia moved to Australia. The flourishing of Orthodoxy on Australian land is associated with the establishment of communist power and the beginning of the persecution of Christians in China. Many Russians who settled there after the revolution of 1917 were forced to once again look for a safe place to live. Currently, there are OrthodoX churches in all major cities of Australia. OrthodoX communities are active in spiritual and educational activities and include not only the descendants of Russian immigrants, but also representatives of other nationalities.

Обзор исследований влияния русского изобразительного искусства на развитие традиционного искусства Северо-Востока Китая в ХХ веке

Russian fine art had a significant influence on the development of art in China. Elements of Russian painting had a great influence not only on the development of the art of Chinese painting in general, but also, in particular, on the development of the art of painting in the Heilongjiang region (Northeast China). Both in China and in Russia, research is being conducted on the influence of Russian painting on the development of Chinese art, in particular Chinese painting; research on artistic exchanges between Heilongjiang and Russia, research on the history of the development of art in Northeast China, as well as research on the contribution of Russian immigrants to the development of art in Northeast China. This article analyzes Chinese and Russian publications reflecting the results of these studies.

Понятие интеграция мигрантов в российских концепциях миграционной политики: к вопросу о концептуальных основах

Attempts to conceptualize the integration of migrants in society regularly face criticism within the academic community; the term integration does not have a generally accepted definition. The article offers an analysis of Russian migrants integration policy. The purpose of the study is to clarify the meaning of the term integration, as well as to compare integration theories with practical measures of immigrant integration. The authors define the concept of integration, explore its conceptual foundations, and shed light on some contradictions of its use in political discourse and scientific literature. The concept of integration is defined as the inclusion of an individual in a certain host community’s social ties structure. Using the content analysis method, the article considers the place of integration concept in the fundamental documents of the Russian immigration policy. The authors conclude that the Russian integration policy has its faults. There is a gap between the integration policy and the realities of the migrants' existence, which prevents the effective inclusion of migrants in Russian society. Solving the problem requires close cooperation between various actors of migration policy, including non-profit civil organizations.

Genetic characterization of Dibothriocephalus latus and Dibothriocephalus dendriticus (Cestoda: Diphyllobothriidae) from Chile based on haplotype analysis using mitochondrial DNA markers.

Dibothriocephalus latus and Dibothriocephalus dendriticus are found throughout the temperate and sub-arctic zones of the northern hemisphere, but they are also found in the southern core countries of South America, Chile and Argentina. Genetic characteristics of D. latus and D. dendriticus from South America have yet to be fully defined. The present study aimed to understand the genetic characteristics of D. latus and D. dendriticus from Chile by haplotype network analysis of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (cox1) and cytochrome b gene (cob), as well as their origins. Dibothriocephalus latus and D. dendriticus plerocercoid larvae were obtained from feral and/or wild salmonids captured in Lake Llanquihue in Región de Los Lagos, and Lake Panguipulli in Región de Los Ríos, located south of central Chile. Haplotype analysis of D. latus revealed that H1 in cox1 and H2 in cob are the key haplotypes common to D. latus across the world, including Chile, and both genes exhibited limited genetic diversity in D. latus. It was assumed that D. latus was brought into South America by European and Russian immigrants in the 19th century as previously reported. In contrast, both the cox1 and cob of D. dendriticus display considerable genetic diversity, with no common haplotypes between D. dendriticus populations from Chile and the northern hemisphere. More intriguingly, two cob haplotypes (H24, H25) detected in Chilean D. dendriticus were closely linked to haplotypes (H30, H31) detected in North American D. dendriticus, strongly implying that D. dendriticus in Chile was brought by piscivorous migrating birds from North America. It has also been estimated that the D. dendriticus from Chile genetically diverged from the D. dendriticus from the northern hemisphere approximately 1.11 million years ago, long before humans migrated to the southern parts of South America.

Ethnic and religious identities in Russian penal institutions: A case study of Uzbek Transnational Muslim prisoners

Russia has become one of the main migration hubs worldwide following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The vast majority of migrant workers travel to Russia from three Central Asian countries. However, Russian immigration laws and policies are ambiguous and highly punitive. The result is that many migrants resort to undocumented status working in the shadow economy, which places them in a disadvantaged and precarious position. In this position they are vulnerable to becoming targets of the Russian criminal justice system as they take to crime to overcome economic uncertainty, become embroiled in interpersonal conflicts ending in violence, or fall victim to fabricated criminal charges initiated by Russian police officers under pressure to produce their monthly quota of arrests. The impact on Russian penal institutions is that they have become ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse sites as a consequence of the incarceration of growing numbers of transnational prisoners. Using person-to-person interviews conducted in Uzbekistan with men and women who served sentences in Russian penal institutions during the past two decades, we show in this article how the large-scale migratory processes have transformed Russian prisons into sites of ethnic and religious plurality, in which formal rules and informal sub-cultures - the colony regime, so-called thieves' law (vorovskoy zakon), ethnic solidarity norms, and Sharia law - coexist and clash in new ways compared with the status quo ante. Thus, we argue there is a need to revise the prevailing understanding about the power dynamics in Russian penal institutions. Our findings undermine the prison service's insistence of the ethnic and ethno-religious neutrality and cosmopolitanism of Russian penal space, which is presented as a latter-day manifestation of the Soviet-era 'friendship of nations' policy. Russian prisons today must be understood as sites of ethnic and religious pluralism.

Marriage Choice of Immigrants in Russia: Main Characteristics and Relationship with Integration

Marriage Choice of Immigrants in Russia: Main Characteristics and Relationship with Integration

Russian imprint in the peculiar mosaic of Argentine identity

The article deals with the impact of the Russian immigration and the activities undertaken by the Russian Orthodox Church on the Argentine Republic. The aim of the article is to assess the contribution made by the Russian migrants to the formation and history of the Argentine nation. From 1881 to 1914, more than 4.2 million migrants moved to Argentina, with the Russians being the fourth largest group. By 1914, the migrants accounted for 30% of the population (3.9% were Russians); thus, Argentina was developing as a country of immigration. Today, by contrast, Argentina is becoming a country of emigration, as there is a worrying human capital outflow. Therefore, it is useful to recall and evaluate the positive potential of the Russian migration to Argentina. The methodological basis of the article comprises the induction, the logical intuitive method, the method of periodization, the historical interpretative method and the institutional approach. The article examines Argentina’s policy of attracting migrants, its reasons and the response to this policy in the form of six waves of migration from Russia to Argentina. It analyses the contribution of the representatives of the waves to the industrial and intellectual areas in Argentina, and the impact of the immigration flows on the country’s identity. It also considers the historical and contemporary influence of the Russian Orthodox Church on the Argentine religious field. It is concluded that the Russian migration contributed to the development of the Argentine rural and urban areas, culture and science, as well as reinforced Argentina’s identity as a multi-ethnic and multicultural, arrogant and self-critical country. The Russian Orthodox Church historically has been the centre of the Russian diaspora´s cultural life in Argentina, and at present it has undertaken numerous cultural and religious initiatives facilitating the intercultural dialogue.

Digital Game-Based Korean Language Learning for Russian Immigrant Children.

Objective: With the elements of competition and reward, digital game-based learning is reportedly more effective than traditional instruction methods. Moreover, children with attention problems are reportedly often interested in internet games. We hypothesized that digital game-based learning can improve the effectiveness of educational opportunities in Russian immigrant children and could be more effective in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) compared with other children. Materials and Methods: This study was designed as an 8-week crossover study that comprised 4 weeks of game rounds and 4 weeks of control rounds for two groups. Wise-Ax™ is a casual digital game for vocabulary education among Russian immigrant children. To develop the game, 1200 Korean words were selected from the word pool suggested by the Korean Government's Department of Education. A total of 26 students participated in the study. At 4 and 8 weeks, all students took the Korean language ability tests. Results: The study found that more than 80% of the children were satisfied with their digital game-based Korean education, which greatly improved their Korean language ability compared with the traditional teaching methods. Children with ADHD showed a greater increase in the Korean ability test compared with children without ADHD in the game round. Conclusion: Wise-Ax could be an effective tool to help improve the Korean language ability of Russian immigrant children, especially those with ADHD.

Residential buildings of the Russian population in the Omsk Irtysh region in the 17th — beginning of the 20th c. in the archaeological and architectural-ethnographic dimension

Over the past thirty-five years, a series of archaeological sites of the period of the Russian colonization of Siberia have been investigated in the territory of the Siberian macroregion, which made it possible to identify re-gional features and to trace evolution of the socio-cultural identity of the Russian Siberian in the 17th–19th cc. A topical issue is the in-depth study of the processes of ethno-cultural adaptation in microregions. In this work, as one of the aspects of adaptation, changes in the house exterior in the Omsk Irtysh region are considered. This work is aimed to consider main types of the residential buildings of the Russian population in the Omsk Irtysh region in the 17th — early 20th c. in order to determine their specifics and development trends. The work is carried by a complex approach, involving the use of different types of sources, such as archaeological, written, and eth-nographic. To compare the buildings studied in the Omsk Irtysh region with houses in other regions, a compara-tive historical method was used. Analysis of the archaeological materials on the architecture and layout of urban dwellings of the 17th–18th cc. showed specifics of the housing in different parts of the town. The houses of the representatives of the tsarist administration, senior clergy, and military commanders with multi-chambered buildings were located in the territory of the kremlin — the central part of the town. In the walled part of Western Siberian towns, where representatives of other social groups lived, both single-chambered and multi-chambered houses were built, although so far only few of them have been identified archaeologically. Stoves with chimneys and mica windows, as socially significant structural elements of the house, were gradually becoming attributes of the dwel-lings not only of the representatives of the tsarist administration, but also of the middle strata of the townspeople. In the rural areas, Russian immigrants in the 17th — first half of the 18th c. were erecting multi-chambered buildings of a large area. The set of socially-marking structural elements was the same as in the town. The archaeological material obtained during the study of residential buildings of the rural sites of the Irtysh Basin is generally of the same type and is equally characteristic of village and town alike. Based on the results of the author’s own ethno-graphic observations, a characteristics of individual residential buildings of the 19th — beginning of the 20th c. is given. There has been noted the prevalence of two-chambered dwellings by the end of the 19th century in the Russian village, which required less building material, as compared with multi-chambered counterparts, and were easier to heat. Multi-chambered buildings and carved platbands constituted socially marking traits of dwellings of the wealthy strata of the rural population. The field observations warranted further archaeological and ethno-graphic studies of the rural and urban wooden architecture to gain a deeper insight on the evolution of the house-building that combined traditional elements of the 17th–18th cc. with innovations, simplification, and standardiza-tion of the 19th–20th cc.

Possessive pronouns in Russian-German language contact: variation or change?

Abstract The article addresses the question of what happens to internal linguistic variability in a language contact situation by looking at how first-generation Russian immigrants in Germany use two variants of possessive pronouns (reflexive and non-reflexive) for referencing the subject. To what extent does the frequency of the variants, as well as linguistic constraints on their use, remain the same as in the monolingual variety, or change to converge with the structures of the majority language? A forced choice sentence completion task was conducted with 96 adult monolingual Russian and 96 adult bilingual Russian-German speakers to measure the frequency of both variants and the effect of animacy and referentiality of the possessum. The results reveal an increased frequency of the non-reflexive variant in bilingual Russian, indicating convergence with German. At the same time, bilingual speakers observe the same animacy and referentiality constraints on the possessive choice as monolinguals. The effect of linguistic constraints, however, is smaller than the influence of individual speaker-related variables. Overall, our study indicates that convergence in language contact affects the frequency but not the conditioning of the variants and only in some bilingual individuals.

The Relationship Between Perceived Discrimination, Acculturation Attitudes, and Adaptation among Anglophone African Immigrants in Russia: The Moderating Role of Neuroticism.

Perceived discrimination is an acculturative stressor that negatively predicts psychological and socio-cultural adaptation, partially mediated by the individual's acculturation attitudes. However, despite being under similar conditions of high perceived discrimination, some African immigrants in Russia appear to adapt more successfully than others. Why the individual differences? Neuroticism is a trait that intensifies the experience of negative emotions and sensitivity to stress. Perhaps it amplifies the reaction to acculturative stressors (e.g., perceived discrimination) in terms of acculturation attitudes, with significant implications for adaptation. This study sought to determine whether the personality trait of neuroticism influences how African immigrants in Russia react to perceived discrimination in terms of their acculturation attitudes and how this may relate to adaptation. A moderated mediation analysis was carried out, investigating neuroticism as a moderator in the relationship between perceived discrimination, acculturation attitudes, and adaptation of African immigrants in Russia (N = 157). Perceived discrimination was found to be strongly associated with poor psychological and sociocultural adaptation, which was partially mediated by the integration attitude; neuroticism strengthened this indirect negative association. When highly neurotic African immigrants perceived elevated levels of discrimination, they were more averse to adopting a positive attitude toward integration, and as a result, were more maladapted. This result suggests that the differences in the levels of adaptation among African immigrants in Russia under similar conditions of high perceived discrimination may be partially due to their levels of neuroticism.

Gender attitudes of immigrants in Russia (on the example of concepts of equal educational opportunities)

Attitudes towards gender equality have significant differences in different countries of the world. These differences are especially felt in migratory movements, when people are faced with different gender regimes. This article is devoted to the study of ideas about gender equality of immigrants from post-Soviet countries in Russia, as well as their comparison with similar attitudes of Russians. The empirical basis of the study was a survey of immigrants from the CIS countries, Ukraine and Georgia (autumn 2020, 700 respondents). Data on Russians is taken from the seventh wave of the World Values Survey (2017, 1810 respondents). Despite the common historical past, the gender attitudes of immigrants and Russians differ — the former more often agree with the thesis that higher education is more important for a boy than for a girl. Predictors of influence on gender attitudes were identified. For Russians, gender, position in the labor market and the number of children turned out to be significant. For immigrants, predictors of patriarchal gender perceptions were older age, lower levels of education, and adherence to the Muslim religion. An extended regression model for immigrants also led to the conclusion that it is not the length of time migrants live in the host country that affects the transformation of their gender attitudes, but the intention to connect their lives with Russia, the formation of an all-Russian identity (a sense of community with the citizens of the Russian Federation). At the same time, the position of Russia as a country that has not overcome the problem of gender inequality (50th place in the world ranking), coupled with the patriarchal ideas of some Russians, may allow immigrants not to rush to revise their own gender attitudes.

Religious and Cultural Adaptation of Korean Immigrants in Russia in the Late 19th Century on the Example of Blagoslovennoe Village

In the second half of the 19th century Russia expanded its territory to the coast of the Sea of Japan and achieved a border with Korea. In the 1860s, a large number of Korean immigrants began to move into the Russian Empire. In 1871, Russian authorities relocated some Korean immigrants to the Amur River and established a village called “Blagoslovennoe”. The government of the Russian Empire attempted to integrate them by establishing a Korean settlement and translating liturgy into Korean. The case of Blagoslovennoe Village on the Amur River is an example of an attempt to integrate Korean immigrants into Russian society. The Russian authorities used Orthodoxy as a means of “russification” of Korean immigrants in the Far East, and the spread of Orthodoxy among the Korean immigrant community coincided with the desire of most Korean immigrants to integrate into Russian society as soon as possible. To this end, a bilingual Orthodox liturgy was made available. Based on a bilingual liturgy for Korean immigrants to the Far East in Korean and Russian used in the village of Blagoslovennoe, found in the Archives of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences, this paper examines the Orthodox element in the “Russification” of Korean immigrants to the Far East, beginning with this unexplored archive. But despite adaptation processes, Koreans retained their identity. For example, Korean immigrants retained familiar geographical names not only in their speech but also in their liturgy. The study of liturgical texts allows the researcher to understand the process of cultural integration into the new society with the preservation of cultural identity. The author expresses her deep gratitude to Dr. V.G. Sharonova, Leading Researcher of the Institute of Russian History of the RAS, for constructive criticism on the content of the article and the edit.

Ekho Avstralii : Australia's First Russian Newspaper and Its Revolutionary Reverberations

In June 1912, Fedor Sergeev, a Russian Revolutionary who had made his way from Siberian exile to Australia, launched a weekly newspaper in Brisbane. Entitled Ekho Avstralii, it would cater to a community of Russian immigrants then said to number approximately 11,000. Sergeev sought by this means to give the immigrants a sense of communal identity and common purpose, and 'uphold the interests of the Russian-speaking worker in Australia'. This article reviews the newspaper's contents and draws attention to some of its journalists and contributors, including the poet Nikolai Il´in and Petr Simonov (later to be Consul), in the Australian context of the time.